After his benching on Monday and release on Friday, the Daniel Jones era is officially over in New York. But, as it turns out, the beginning of the end may have arrived far sooner than Jones's benching.

The easiest solution here was to follow the Derek Carr-Raiders benching model: Sit the player Monday, then agree to either shut him down completely for the rest of the season or a release the same afternoon. Doing this would have saved them the week-long distraction and, of course, the injury guarantee.

The New York Giants decision to bench Daniel Jones coming out of the Week 11 bye in place of Tommy DeVito isn't a universally beloved call from those inside the locker room. Recently, star defensive lineman Dexter Lawrence offered his dissenting position,

John Mara gave Brian Daboll a very low bar to clear. And he still might not clear it. Remember, before the season, Mara said he wanted to see “significant improvement” in this hot-seat third season for Daboll and general manager Joe Schoen.

No one can say Jones never got a fair shot. When Daboll arrived in 2022 as the head coach of the Giants, he was tasked with jump-starting the sluggish and at times imperceptible development of the player a previous regime selected with the No. 6 overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft.

The Giants said that their decision to bench quarterback Daniel Jones this week was based on football considerations only, but the bigger picture continues to point to the role his contract played in the team's overall plan at the position.